₦airaland Forum

I cannot count the number of videos of young talented Nigerians who have invented different amazing things in the past three decades. But I am going to refer to the last three recent ones that have actually tied me down to write this piece.
We saw the BCC footage of Musa Aliyu, a young secondary school leaver in Ilorin, Kwara State with this great talent in aeronautic technology. Despite that Aliyu was not guided by any expert, he has been able to construct several drones with which he can deliver packages outside Ilorin. That is quite amazing!
Mustapha Abubakar Gajibo is another talented young Nigerian whose BCC videos have been circulating on the social-media for quite some time. A university drop-out from Borno State, Mustapha started by converting mini-buses into electric ones, using them for commercial transportation thereby easing the hardship people went through during fuel scarcity. But in the last footage of him I saw, he has started constructing the buses himself.
Yet in another viral video is the story of anther young talented Nigerian secondary school student in Lagos State, Babatimileyi Daomi who constructed several prototype objects like vacuum cleaner, an amazing microscope, pumping machine and motorbike.
These three together with many other talented Nigerians I have ever seen their works would always have a common thing to say, ‘If I can get the government’s support, I can do better than this.’ But, surprisingly, I have never seen anyone of them receiving the required attention from any governments. Yet, technological innovation is a yard-stick with which countries are judged to be serious, developing and advancing. At least, the United Arab Emirate is a testimony. One would then be forced to ask if Nigeria is a cursed nation destined not to develop technologically.
Musa Aliyu is just one out of many Nigerians I have seen displaying talents in aeronautics. If Nigeria could be serious enough to bring them together and provide them with their needs in order to produce drones in large quantity, would that not go a long way in solving our security challenges in the area of surveillance? Now that the world is determined, more than ever before, to switch away from fuel-powered vehicles to electric ones, don’t Mustapha Abubakar and other young Nigerians making individual efforts in electric cars deserve some serious attention now so that Nigeria can be counted as one of the countries championing the technology? Or do our leaders think that oil will forever continue to be relevant?
Sixty five years ago, Nigeria, South Korea and Brazil, each from a different continent, were rated, with the United Nations’ criteria, to have attained the ‘same’ level of development. But today, the other two countries have moved far ahead. Apart from South Korea, for instance, being the 10th largest economy in the world, the country can boast of putting forward the global household LG brand, Samsung, medical robotic technology, walking cars and artificial intelligence. Brazil has also broken the record of being the first country to put forward Direct-Recording electronic Voting machine, first unassisted flight as well as the discovery of caller ID. What can Nigeria boast of?
May be music and the frivolous reality TV shows. As if they can lead to any development, these are the only things our governments can spend the last kobo in our treasury on. How many politicians visited these young inventors in the same way they visited to show support to Hilda Bacci while trying to break Guinness Record for cooking? This alone is enough for us to know that the politicians are not concerned about our future but only about their re-election.
When India had their breakthrough in automobile production for the first time some sixty years ago, the country immediately placed a ban on the importation of any other cars into the country. Therefore, from the Prime Minister to the taxi drivers on the streets, everyone used the same type of car popularly called ‘Ambassador.’ If you watched any Indian movie in the eighties to nineties, it was the only car you would see in their movies. This went on for fifty years before the country eventually lifted the ban. By then, they had sufficiently developed their own automobile industry, leading to the springing up of some other automobile plants.
When Nigeria had similar breakthrough many years later with Innoson automobile production, one would think that the country would do the same thing or, at least, cut down importation of foreign cars to favour local production. Today, Innosion Motors is still struggling to get market in its own country.
Nigeria is about the only country among the OPEC giants which does not refine its own oil. It has its four different refineries which are not working. But then, like a cursed nation, Nigeria has to take its oil outside the country to be refined in order to be imported back into the country. Who does that?

GOD BLESS NIGERIA!

I cannot count the number of videos of young talented Nigerians who have invented different amazing things in the past three decades. But I am going to refer to the last three recent ones that have actually tied me down to write this piece.
We saw the BCC footage of Musa Aliyu, a young secondary school leaver in Ilorin, Kwara State with this great talent in aeronautic technology. Despite that Aliyu was not guided by any expert, he has been able to construct several drones with which he can deliver packages outside Ilorin. That is quite amazing!
Mustapha Abubakar Gajibo is another talented young Nigerian whose BCC videos have been circulating on the social-media for quite some time. A university drop-out from Borno State, Mustapha started by converting mini-buses into electric ones, using them for commercial transportation thereby easing the hardship people went through during fuel scarcity. But in the last footage of him I saw, he has started constructing the buses himself.
Yet in another viral video is the story of anther young talented Nigerian secondary school student in Lagos State, Babatimileyi Daomi who constructed several prototype objects like vacuum cleaner, an amazing microscope, pumping machine and motorbike.
These three together with many other talented Nigerians I have ever seen their works would always have a common thing to say, ‘If I can get the government’s support, I can do better than this.’ But, surprisingly, I have never seen anyone of them receiving the required attention from any governments. Yet, technological innovation is a yard-stick with which countries are judged to be serious, developing and advancing. At least, the United Arab Emirate is a testimony. One would then be forced to ask if Nigeria is a cursed nation destined not to develop technologically.
Musa Aliyu is just one out of many Nigerians I have seen displaying talents in aeronautics. If Nigeria could be serious enough to bring them together and provide them with their needs in order to produce drones in large quantity, would that not go a long way in solving our security challenges in the area of surveillance? Now that the world is determined, more than ever before, to switch away from fuel-powered vehicles to electric ones, don’t Mustapha Abubakar and other young Nigerians making individual efforts in electric cars deserve some serious attention now so that Nigeria can be counted as one of the countries championing the technology? Or do our leaders think that oil will forever continue to be relevant?
Sixty five years ago, Nigeria, South Korea and Brazil, each from a different continent, were rated, with the United Nations’ criteria, to have attained the ‘same’ level of development. But today, the other two countries have moved far ahead. Apart from South Korea, for instance, being the 10th largest economy in the world, the country can boast of putting forward the global household LG brand, Samsung, medical robotic technology, walking cars and artificial intelligence. Brazil has also broken the record of being the first country to put forward Direct-Recording electronic Voting machine, first unassisted flight as well as the discovery of caller ID. What can Nigeria boast of?
May be music and the frivolous reality TV shows. As if they can lead to any development, these are the only things our governments can spend the last kobo in our treasury on. How many politicians visited these young inventors in the same way they visited to show support to Hilda Bacci while trying to break Guinness Record for cooking? This alone is enough for us to know that the politicians are not concerned about our future but only about their re-election.
When India had their breakthrough in automobile production for the first time some sixty years ago, the country immediately placed a ban on the importation of any other cars into the country. Therefore, from the Prime Minister to the taxi drivers on the streets, everyone used the same type of car popularly called ‘Ambassador.’ If you watched any Indian movie in the eighties to nineties, it was the only car you would see in their movies. This went on for fifty years before the country eventually lifted the ban. By then, they had sufficiently developed their own automobile industry, leading to the springing up of some other automobile plants.
When Nigeria had similar breakthrough many years later with Innoson automobile production, one would think that the country would do the same thing or, at least, cut down importation of foreign cars to favour local production. Today, Innosion Motors is still struggling to get market in its own country.
Nigeria is about the only country among the OPEC giants which does not refine its own oil. It has its four different refineries which are not working. But then, like a cursed nation, Nigeria has to take its oil outside the country to be refined in order to be imported back into the country. Who does that?

GOD BLESS NIGERIA!

By Bashir Alabi (08034205451)
alabibashir@gmail.com

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When I see the way some people behave in office as if they are God, I begin to wonder if they actually know their tenure is almost over. Between 1999 and 2007 when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo used to be the president of Nigeria, he had this habit of spreading his arms widely apart on the table while he was seated in the Villa and flanked by either his cabinet members or some other important dignitaries in the country. Anytime he did that, it sounded to me as if the man was saying, ‘this place belongs to me’ or that ‘I am a fixture here’. And that made me have the feeling that his power was going to be there for life. But when Obasanjo eventually left office and he began to send advice to his subsequent successors, sometimes, via his popular open letters and sometimes, through remarks made in a public gathering or in interviews, it did dawn on me that power ever is ephemeral.
Unfortunately, most politicians in Nigeria, most especially, State Governors, members Houses of Assembly and many of the people fortunate to find themselves in the corridor of power in Aso Rock usually think as though they are fixtures in their various positions. They fail to realize that their four or eight years are almost over.
By nature, a fraction of these people would remain relevant in power for a very long time. But then, it is certain that the vast majority usually fall into the wilderness. Because of this, some of these people embezzle the public fund madly in an attempt to scare poverty far away and keep it at bay. They think they are wise but certainly, posterity is wiser than them. Some others don’t think their eight years are numbered. Therefore, they misbehave, basking in impurity, corruption, reckless spending and lawlessness. To such, I have a reminder. Have they ever thought that some people were in that position when they never thought they would be there? In the same way, sometimes, one day, they too will leave there.
One day, I was inside a State Government House when everybody, all of a sudden, began to run helter-skelter. The various security attachments, the police, the Civil Defense, DSS and drivers were running to different directions. Each was trying to catch up with their cars. When I inquired what was going on, I was told they had been alerted that the governor wanted to go out and everybody was rushing to their vehicle to join his convoy. Wonderful! Unfortunately today, that governor has now become an ‘ex-governor’.
Some years later, I was in the same Government House and that same ex-governor visited his former abode. He was just with his driver and no one else. To my amazement, no one cared he entered about his entrance. I noticed everyone was just looking at him. Although, he enjoyed preferential treatment by being allowed to go in to see his successor directly without being delayed like other visitors who equally wanted to see the serving governor, I strongly believe that, deep inside him, he would perceive the bitter side of the life lesson.
Some other time, I was at the airport and I saw a group of student being shown around by this same ex-governor. He was so loose that he took his time to explain the various sections of the airport to the students. And again, there was no any security details, no convoy and protocols. He was just alone. It was much later when we realized he was actually waiting for the present serving governor who later arrived with all the convoy which he (the ex-governor) used to have around him.
Long time ago, there was a minister who once sent his girlfriend to an important official functioning as his representative. One would then wonder if the Permanent Secretary and other directors in the ministry were not competent to stand in. To him, he was in power and therefore, he should exercise his power to his satisfaction. But of recent, when I saw him in his nearly rickety car, I asked myself but I wish I could ask him if he was still with that his girlfriend and if he could still freely enter the same ministry without being asked what he is looking for. That is life and that is why one has to tread with utmost care.
Who does not remember a former governor of Zamfara State when he was threatening his party’s National Chairman and the presidency as though he founded and he would forever remain the governor of the state. His end eventually turned out to a comic drama.
A very long time ago, a one-time Post-Master-General of Nigeria had himself and his family with their belongings evicted from his hitherto official residence. When he was interviewed, he began to recount his achievements and the sacrifices he made for the Nigerian Postal Services. But that was story. The most important lesson for one to learn is that just as our stay on earth is temporal; so is our time in office. Perhaps, the Post-Master-General did not realize this.
Of all the people I have witnessed their ends, perhaps, the closest person to me is my neighbour, who, before he became a member, State House of Assembly, was hardly visited by anybody. In 2015, luck shone on him when the APC swept most part of Nigeria at the time many people least expected. Being a member of the APC, he won the election. Subsequently and immediately, too, crowds began to throng at his house for the next four years. Unfortunately, immediately he lost the primary election in the subsequent election year, the crowd disappeared, even before the end of his tenure. His numbered days had finished.
I have learnt a lot of lessons and I am still learning. I have learnt that if life favours you at any time, be extremely careful. If it doesn’t, exercise patience. If you succeed in climbing the ladder up, never damage any of the steps you have climbed up. If people look up to you, know that it is because of what they see with you. If you find yourself in any position, create a good history for yourself for that is what will be left of you. If you are given any position, count yourself lucky for you are not the best. If you are superior anywhere, never treat your subordinates as nobody.
I have learnt that if you are served with a delicious meal, you must not bring shame to yourself and your family by smearing your clothes with soup. If you have today, know that you may not have tomorrow. I have learnt that life is not as straight as a barrel of gun. Life has taught me that it is pendulous in nature and it can swing to anyone today and some others tomorrow. If it swings to you, know that your tenure is ephemeral and you will soon be out.

ALABI BASHIR
08034205451
alabibashir@gmail.com

when i read through the comments for this post, they sounded as if Mr. Fashola was ridiculed by the HARDtalk presenter, but when I watched the video there was nothing of such through the length of the talk. We Nigerians need to be objective and logical; or at least be putting our selves in others shoes.
God bless us all.